EXCLUSIVE: Mayor's new £48m cycle superhighway would have to be removed after just one year to make way for supersewer construction

Flagship: Blackfriars junction under the plans for a new £48m cycle superhighway from east to west (Picture: PA)

Sections of Boris Johnson’s flagship cycling project - the £48m east-to-west cycle superhighway - will have to be removed within a year of its 2016 completion to make way for construction work on London’s supersewer, the Standard can reveal.

Key central stretches of the two-way segregated superhighway on the Victoria Embankment and Blackfriars Bridge will have to be taken out for up to three years.

Workers for Thames Water, which was granted consent for the £4bn replacement sewer project by the Government last week, require road and pavement space as a platform to build the tunnel under Thames and connect to existing drains.

Blackfriars Bridge is particularly problematic as Thames Water need to connect a major overflow point under the bridge to the new tunnel within a cramped site.

The supersewer project has stumped the mayor’s transport planners who confirmed privately this week that the cycle superhighway will have to come out.

They have negligible space to find an alternative route for riders along the east-to-west cycle route.

The superhighway will have a capacity of 3,000 cyclists and hour - twice the current volume at the busiest rush hour sites for riders, making diversions difficult one one of London’s busiest roads.

With Thames Water adamant about their project’s needs - and unlike the cycle superhighway backed by planning consent - the case has further highlighted concerns that the mayor is trying to hurry the superhighway as one of his key legacies.

Last week business chiefs threatened legal action unless their demands for more detail on the traffic impacts and an extension to the six-week consultation were met.

A source told the Standard: “They have no idea how they are going to do this or what the effect is. They haven’t started on it. These are quite large land reclamation jobs and you have to work on the land-side. In order to do that you need at least one lane but if you do that it takes out the cycle route. The idea is that they do the cycle superhighway in 2015 and then in 2016 take it out all again for Thames Water. The concern is you are going to have to pay tens of millions of pounds and you are going to have to take it all out. ”

The Thames Tideway Tunnel website confirms that between Horse Guards Avenue and Northumberland Avenue along the Victoria Embankment a section of “roadway and pavement” will be required on the westbound carriageway.

A Thames Tideway Tunnel spokesman said: “We are liaising closely with TfL to identify ways of working collaboratively to minimise any impacts that our construction works may have on the Cycle Superhighway. These include the option of a phased approach to the Cycle Superhighway’s construction that integrates with our own plans.”

Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport at TfL said: “We are working closely with Thames Water to ensure that there is no impact on the superhighway. It is planned that in the event of any closures, a safe, segregated and clearly signed cycle lane will be installed to get cyclists past the works.”